Walkers gather before heading out on a 5k walk for hurricane disaster relief at Balboa Park in Van Nuys, CA Sunday, November 10, 2013. The ROMAH Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Philippine Disaster Relief Organization held a walk and fundraiser for disaster relief in the Philippines.
DAVID CRANE — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

VAN NUYS >> Raquel Arcangel of Mission Hills couldn’t fight back the tears as she described how her best friend and his family have been affected by a monstrous typhoon in the Philippines that is believed to have killed thousands of people.

Arcangel, who owns a tile factory in Van Nuys, has two brothers in Manila who were not affected directly by the recent earthquake and typhoon but was crushed to hear that her best friend, Felix Mazo, who also lives in the Asian nation’s capital, hadn’t heard from his parents for two days. His parents, she said, live in Leyte Island, which was among the areas hardest hit by Typhoon Haiyan.

“He’s worried; I can just imagine,” said Arcangel, who was one of more than 200 people who gathered Sunday to take part in a 5K walk at Lake Balboa and Woodley parks to raise money for victims of the Oct. 15 earthquake, which killed more than 200 people, and Friday’s devastating typhoon. “This is my tiny, tiny little way of saying to my friends that I’m supporting you guys. I may be far but I’m here.”

Sunday’s disaster relief fundraiser, sponsored by the Philippine Disaster Relief Organization and the San Fernando Valley-based ROMAH Foundation, Inc., had raised some $8,000 as of mid-morning, according to organizers, who expected the number to rise by the afternoon.

Ruth Ann Stewart, founder and president of ROMAH, said she was leaving for the Philippines on Nov. 19th to deliver food and whatever other supplies are needed for the disaster-prone archipelago.

The nonprofit’s first annual charity event with the Philippine Disaster Relief Organization on Sunday was initially intended to raise funds for future calamities, she said.

“Then the earthquake came about, then we prepared for that and a few days ago, here comes the typhoon,” Stewart said. “Now we’re doubling our work now that disaster hit twice in the same place.”

Stewart, who has relatives in Bohol and other areas severely affected by the typhoon, said it’s difficult not knowing the fate of some of her extended family members.

“That’s why we’re so eager to fly there as soon as we can to find out their situation because they are in dire need of food or whatever,” she said. “I don’t know if they’re alive or what not. I’m not sure — so that’s where the heartache is right now.”

Hellen Barber De La Vega, consul general of the Philippines in Los Angeles, said Southern California — which has some 900,000 Filipinos — has the largest Filipino constituency outside the Republic of the Philippines. The Philippine Consulate General has partnered with the Philippine Disaster Relief Organization for more than eight years, she said, to help victims of strong typhoons.

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“This 5K walk is significant for us,” De La Vega said. “It’s the first 5K walk I think for the entire U.S. that took place immediately after super Typhoon Yolanda,” she said, using the name given by Filipinos to the disaster that is internationally known as Typhoon Haiyan. “We’ve had an overwhelming show of support and goodwill. I’ve been appealing to overseas Filipinos here in our jurisdiction to help.”

Assessment missions have already been dispatched to the country, she said. Because money is the most flexible form of donation, it is the form of aid that is most needed right now, she said.